Dedicated to Ending Law Enforcement and Detention Officer Misconduct

Prison Legal News settled a First Amendment censorship suit against the Berkeley County Detention Center in South Carolina. PLN received $100,000 in damages and $499,900 in attorney fees. This is the largest damages and attorney fee payout in a prison censorship case in the US history, surpassing PLN’s prior settlement of PLN v. Lehmann of $442,000.
The Berkeley County Detention Center refused all publications to prisoners except for soft-back bibles sent directly from the publisher. Berkeley County later retracted their Bible-only statement, saying that they refused PLN’s publications because they contained staples, although the prison itself sold writing pads to prisoners that contained staples.
Attorneys Susan Dunn, David M. Shapiro, and David Fathi are representing PLN.